ness

I’ve had it, but it’s been many years. I like those flavors. That brand looks familiar to me.

@Chief Grey Bear, tell us about the filling please.

Oregon something or other....

‘Knowledge is good.’ Emil Faber

Love Chet Atkins. Here’s my fave

Spent a chunk of the day doing quick visits with friends and relatives, dropping off shortbread. Just the two of us tonight. Did a small rib roast and was very pleased with the results. Maybe just a touch more done that I wanted -- I was pretty surprised by the amount of carry over cooking after pulling it at 120 degrees. Anyhoo, still delicious. Before: Roasted the veggies in the beef fat. After: Then, grandmother's Date Nut Pudding, a ness family tradition: I hope everybody had a merry Christmas!!

I heard a bump on the window a while back. Went to the door to see what was up and a Cooper’s Hawk had a Grackle in its grip on the back of one of our chairs. Went to grab my camera and when I got back they were gone. No blood or feathers, so maybe the Grackle lived. Or maybe it got carried away and dismembered.

We put garland around our front door each holiday season and every year we get a bird or two take refuge in it. I went to let the dogs out one last time last night and had a house finch fly over my shoulder and into the house. #%^*+! Rigged a fishing net to the end of a broomstick and for the next few minutes we tried catching the poor thing. Dogs sitting outside the storm door watching the fun. Caught and released unharmed.

Mine? Right here: Ingredients 3 quarters butter cut into ¼ inch pieces ¾ cup sugar 3 cups flour Sugar for dusting Directions 1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. 2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until well combined, about 3 minutes. 3. Add flour one cup at a time, beating on low speed until just combined. 4. Dust countertop with flour. Place dough onto counter and form into a ball. Dust the top with flour and press into a rough rectangle. Roll with dusted rolling pin to 1/4 inch thick. Using bench scraper, form into a rectangle. 5. Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into ¾ inch wide strips. Going crosswise, cut into 1 to 1½ inch bars. Reform any left over dough into strips and cut to shape. 6. Using a bench scraper, lift bars onto a Silpat-lined baking sheet and arrange with ½ inch spacing. Place two pinches of sugar on each bar. Place in refrigerator for 10 minutes. 7. Dock each bar 4 times with the tines of a wet fork. 8. Bake at 300 degrees on convection setting for approximately 40 minutes, rotating sheet pan half way through. Color should be slightly golden, not brown. 8. Remove from oven and let cool on the sheet pan for 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Family friend, sometimes babysitter and pure Scot, Mrs. Gilfedder made shortbread for us each year at Christmas. We all loved it, especially my dad. I've been doing this for many, many years:

Thanks. I know it’s a repeat but not much new going on here. We did beaver the other night but didn’t want to show up anybody 😄

A few recent ones: Steak soup: Cod with a brown butter lemon caper sauce. With roasted parsnips, carrots and taters. Done cod many times but mixed it up some with a light breading this time. Veggies were delicious too. Need to do them more often. Just olive oil and S&P: Wifey makes great chili. With a side of cornbread. A favorite of ours:

I don’t think they’re anywhere near monopoly-still plenty of competitors out there. But the field is shrinking and the current offerings at the big guys sucks. I’m all for free enterprise and believe you’ve gotta have a reason to exist. But I also feel for Sidney, NE that was gutted when BPS bought Cabela’s and shut things down there. I’ve got a great fly shop nearby that would be my first choice if I needed something good quickly. Wish they had a web store.

Don't really care a great deal as I just don't find myself shopping at Bass Pro or Cabela's much any more, and never at Sportsman's, but this isn't a positive for consumers. https://sports.yahoo.com/sportsman-warehouse-join-great-american-221500329.html

Been looking through old photos a lot lately. Came across this one from a few years back that I always liked. Rocky Mountain National Park:

He saw a picture!

I was in a decent spot, up high without a lot of light pollution and it was still fairly hard to pick up. What you'll see is a fairly bright 'star' (Jupiter) and a much dimmer one (Saturn) near it. Haven't read up to see what it'll look like tonight though. Sunset here was 5:01 last night. I could see it at 5:45 to about 6:30 before I went in.

I guess 800 years ago the sky would have been darker, there was nothing on TV and Ozark Anglers hadn't become a time sink, so they would have thought it was a bigger deal

Yeah, they're passing by each other. It's been going on for a while and will continue for a while.

Yesterday afternoon I scouted around and found a great location for the conjunction-- a high spot with an unobstructed view of the southwest sky. I pre-focused my cameras on infinity and got all the other settings ready before I headed out so I wouldn't have to think about it in the dark. I got to the spot early, about 5:30. Me and about 200 other people. Fortunately there was plenty of parking and it didn't present much of a problem. It's a large park and people were spread out quite a bit, which was better. Except for the husband and wife standing about 15 feet behind me bickering at each other about how to take the picture, not being able to see, and generally being unkind to each other. I think they were expecting to see a super moon and take a picture with their Jitterbug. A little girl nearby was singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which was sweet and made the mess more bearable. I took several shots and bailed out to try my other spots. Got home and the pics were a bust. I knocked my camera's focus off at some point. I guess if last night was the first time those planets have been in that exact position in 800 years, then tonight ought to be the first time for this position in 800 years too. I may try again tonight.

Well, you guys made me go downstairs and look. Nashville, TN. Probably 20 years old. I would definitely do a comparison if I had both. Heavy doesn’t necessarily mean better at its job. Then there’s durability.

Thanks for the reminder -- I'm gonna try and set things up for a shot tonight.

How ‘bout them Chiefs!

Cookie decorating going into its 7th hour. Meanwhile I made a potato soup: Here’s another view. There it is at 10:00